Vending Unit Provides Recipe for Inventory Success

When making its baked goods daily, Uptown Bakeries in Bridgeport, N.J., adheres to strict recipes to ensure consistent quality for every batch out of its ovens. The company’s maintenance division applies the same processing strategy to optimizing its tool and supply inventory, but tracking the inventory has not always been easy.

“As with many maintenance shops, things were simply being tossed out,” says Juan Perez, the company’s maintenance manger. “We had no real organization or structure to know just what we had in order to do the work we had to do.”

An earlier method of inventory storage — using milk crates — transitioned to a more sophisticated cabinet system, but Uptown still struggled to keep its inventory costs under control before purchasing MSC Industrial Supply’s 5000T vending unit. The unit met Uptown’s organizational and functional needs and satisfied its desire to work with one supplier.

“MSC promised a total solution for our tool and MRO management and control,” Perez says.

Once installation of the unit was complete, stocking and implementation happened quickly, and the bakery’s maintenance shop was operating more efficiently.

“I placed the utmost urgency on this project,” Perez says. “We were thoroughly convinced the 5000T would instantly make us a more profitable segment of our company. MSC brought in our completely programmed unit on a Monday and in just a few days we were fully operational. Training was provided as well, and we still receive ongoing training today.”

The vending system gives maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) items and maintenance tools an inventory number. The unit provides computerized control of inventory on hand and inventory needed to complete projects.

“Our MSC dispenser is so easy to use,” Perez says. “Its drawers are also large enough to handle our largest supplies in quantity, and we never have to worry about the breakage due to tool drops you’d see with some of the candy-machine units we researched.”